So turns out the Argentinians don't have good WiFi either. I'm sitting at a super expensive hotel with spa and whatnot, drinking a beer and using their WiFi. It's still not good - I might just use mobile data in the future since that has almost the same price then the beer here.
Buuuut before we come to the north of Argentinia there is something left from Rosario to tell, like this shop which ONLY sells shoes for Tango dancing.My host, Martin, was so nice to give me his bike for a day so I've had loooots of fun. A bike is faster then a car and way faster then public transport. Only motorcycle are faster, I had a blast!Rosario got some pretty decent public beaches.Directly at the street but it's not too bad.The big buildings there? That's where I came from - had a great bike tour! Afterwards I went went back to Martin, gave him his bike and left for my bus. A 16 hour ride but it wasn't too bad. The bus was maybe to 1/3 full so everyone had two seats and the ride was really chill.Louis, my Couchsurfing host, picked me up, got some food, picked the four Spanish guys up you see in the picture and we had dinner. If I want to, I can eat 3 times a day with Louis, he also has a housekeeping lady and a person who keeps the garden in order. I have never had such a welcoming, easy going host who shares everything. Louis is incredible - big thanks to you, you rock!Louis also has 3 dogs, two of them are HUGE and the third one still young with a crazy drive to play.This is Otto (the dog) Louis loves them a lot! Yes Otto is really big but.....Max is even bigger.Not only Louis as a person and his hospitality is amazing, also his place. This is the terrace with the pool.The living roomThis is the second house, which is for washing clothes and me (yes I basically have my own house here 🤯)This is the view when walking out of the house - there are always mountains. I love it.Two days ago I went to the Yala Lagoons and the waterfalls that were in the same area. Overall I walked 30km that day and it was great!The way to the mountains was already beautiful.These Christian shrines are all over the area. What the three cars are doing there, I have no clue but I also didn't read the Bible so I can't say I'm an expert 🤷🏼♂️Cellphone connectivity is a rare thing but they have signs to indicate where you have signal! This water comes straight out of the mountain and is drinkable. I refilled my bottle (only had 500ml because of this) and was never so happy about some small river before. It was refreshingly cool.The panorama is just stunning. It's always a bit foggy here but if you look VERY close you see more mountains on the horizon. If I don't see mountains on the horizon it's because I can't see them due to the air and not because there are none. Did I already say that I love the Andes?The main attraction of the route: The Lagoons in the mountains.Found this sign and thought it's super cute.Made it to the lagoon!I went in there until the knees but it was super muddy and dirty so I didn't swim.This was literally the only cloud at the sky. It's perfect t-shirt weather, when walking 30km you sweat a lot but the climate is awesome. It gets cold at night tho.Another lagoonI'm not exaggerating when I'm saying that there were "wild" cows then people on my way. These cows are not really wild, they have signs in their ears so they belong to someone but are completely free to walk around in the huge area, no fences, no nothing. Happy cows, I eat meat here without a bad consciousness.As you know I have an issue with red and green colors, but this looks beautiful, the green plants on the red soil under the blue sky. Yup I do love the mountains 😂I believe these horses are really wild. They were very shy and had no marks whatsoever.After the lagoon I went to see the waterfalls which are not described anywhere but in maps.me (a very good, recommendable map-app for offline purposes and hiking!). This is the way to the falls. It was 3 o clock at that time, I was already 5 hours in the mountains. It gets dark around 7 and I did not wanted to be in the mountains then anymore, so I hurried up.This bridge felt more reliable then it looks like.More cows greeting me on the way.And yeah this is the waterfall? Maybe? I don't know. I was already over the point in the map and didn't find the falls. If I had more time I would have continued but it was already 3:30 so I turned around. My fear of beeing in the mountains in the darkness became stronger..More wild horses.I really like this picture, it kinda reflects the wild beauty of the mountains for me.When really zooming into the map there was this small way which was a great shortcut, so I took to get in time home. This way got up pretty high and steep, I couldn't leave it without going all the way back.It was beautiful until this happened. Some sort of erosion destroyed the small path.To the right is 30 meters steep mountain, no way to get down there without broken bones.This is the other side. As you can assume, I made it but it was dangerous. I used every root to hold on tight, checked every step twice because the soil was sometimes loose and slippery. These 2 meters took me like 2 minutes.This is the way down..More cows greeted me, like a sign that I did well.. This one is a young baby.On the shortcut (took overall just an hour instead of 3+) I found these few houses which looked super modern and pricey. This pool is filles by the running water from the mountains (remember it's drinkable).They have fish farms there, like aqua farms in a river.And everything is shaped artificially, beautiful and somehow surreal in these wild mountains.They even generate electricity from the water pressure from the mountains.As I arrived back on the main road of the mountains I decided to try hitchhiking again (usually didn't work well in the north) and the first car picked me up!They even gave me a cold (!!) beer.I don't know your names, but thanks a lot! You saved my day 👍 Due to the shortcut and hitchhiking I saved 3-4 hours and arrived at 5 back at Louis place. In the next town, Jujuy, there were festivities. All the schools in the country (yes, whole Argentinia) builds trailers and equips them with LED lights, sometimes they are moving. It's super crazy and only happens during one week of the year in this town, I got very lucky to be at the right time and the right place.It is a huge event and super crowded. You think the Kiez on a Saturday evening in Hamburg or Kiel during Kielweek is crowded? This is waaaay more people here.I can't show u pictures to show how many people there were, it was crazy. I didn't even get to see the end.Anyway, these trailers were super crazy.Sometimes it's not really clear what is actually on there but I also have no idea about the history.This definitely was King Kong with Mammoths and T-Rexes. King Kong even moved! I'll post a link with plenty of videos, it was amazing!It needs to be very bright and big.Here we got an octopus on a boat.All three heads of the Hydra were moving (seriously, check out the videos!!).Usually there were also some cute girls on the trailers waving at the cheering people. The next day one of these girls (there were over A HUNDRED of these trailers) gets elected to be the queen. All that counts is the looks, they dont do any performance. LINK TO THE VIDEOS:https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=1Bsh8VyGLx5xK6TIBIHQLnJuQuF_Lk7dd (The videos which I gave a name are a must see!) Also around here is the "Salina de Jujuy" which is a huge salt desert in the middle of the mountains. I'll show you some pictures of my way to this desert.On the way to the desert I had to pass a small town called Pumamarca, which has the famous "mountain of seven colors" (Montaña de siete colores). This is it, pretty beautiful.I didn't stay long in the town and kept on going.But there was this car which kinda caught my attention.Ok I'm in a bus with 14 other tourists to the desert. I believe I was the only European, the vast majority of the tourists here is from Latin America, which is very refreshing. But if you couldn't speak Spanish, you would have a pretty big problem here 🤣.These mountains are crazy beautiful. The bus ride was over an hour (one way) and never got boring.I thought this is big....then I got to look down on the very same formation of mountains.We had a short stop, selfie time.So yeah more selfie time at 4000m+. I actually felt how the air got thin and had less oxygen, when I walked fast I was short on air and felt dizzy.Kokain Caramel, tempting but no thank you. I bought a hat from this woman tho, will show you a picture later.They were hard to catch with the smartphone but there were Lamas everywhere. More mountain shots, they are endless. For me it is a bit like looking at the stars, I actually realize how big everything is.Pretty sure I saw a condor, never saw such a big bird and he was just gliding endlessly through the air. We arrived at the "salina grande", the salt desert. Of course there are some locals trying to sell stuff, like these salt crystals.Or salt Lamas.This desert seemed endless.Somehow they get salt by building these water holes. On the ground are big salt crystals.I could simply fetch them out of the water.It looks really beautiful, pictures didn't really catch it. I also made a video (same link then the videos of the colorful trailers) but it doesn't really show.These patterns are all over the place.The ground is all brownish but of you remove just a bit it..... it's all white salt. The whole place is just salt.You can easily break this from the ground.Sunglasses were really nessecary. The hood aswell, else you get a sunburn really quick.Salt stones in all sizes.I mean it, all sizes.Also this is just salt - all sizes available.Ok salt, salt, salt, you get it. When it rains rains here the whole area is a huge mirror, the salt with the water reflects everything. I would love to see that but it won't rain in the next 10 days here 🤷🏼♂️. To show a bit the effect I did it with the water that's there.Also helped these two cute guys with a pic..I said everything is salt here right? I really meant it, even the tables and the chairs are pure salt.But that's not everything.This is a stone of a house.And this is the house. Entirely built out of salt (except the roof).Eventually I left and went back. These brown/red mountains never seize to amaze me.It's just vast and wild here.The street down there is the only street around and the way we go. Nothing for weak stomachs.There is also some agricultureAaaand this is the hat I bought.It's made out of Lama fur and costs around 3€. I don't need it here but in the south I'll be happy to have it! That's it from me so far, in about two days I'll go more up north. I'd really like to but don't think I'll make it to give you updates every one/two days due to missing WiFi. Also the mobile internet is pretty bad. Love and peace,Laurin
